The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles consists of two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244,000 square kilometres.

The United Kingdom is made up of four parts: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast respectively. Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales and does not include Northern Ireland. But in everyday speech “Great Britain” is used to mean the United Kingdom. The capital of the UK is London.

The British Isles are separated from the continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. The western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.

Shakespeare called Britain a “precious stone set in the silver sea” because of it natural beauty. It has different sorts of countryside where you can find mountains, plains, valleys and sandy beaches. Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain, but it is only 1343 metres high.

There are a lot of rivers in Great Britain, but they are not very long. The Severn is the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important one.

The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters of Gulf Stream(墨西哥湾流) influence the climate of the British Isles. It is mild the whole year round.

The UK is a small country. Its population is over 58 million. About 80% of the population live in cities.

Women have been making scientific discoveries since ancient times. Twelve women have won the Nobel Prize for Science, one of the highest honors in the world. Some women scientists never married, some worked with their husbands, and others raised large families. It has been difficult for women to be successful scientists.

In the early 1800s in England, Mary Anning became one of the first women recognized for her discoveries about the ancient history of the earth. Mary and her father collected fossils(化石) in their village on the south coast of Great Britain. Fossils are parts of plants or animals that have been saved in rocks for millions of years.

When she was only twelve years old, Mary became the first person to find the almost complete skeletons(骨架) of several animals that no longer existed on the earth.She didn’t become famous for her discoveries at that time because she often sold her fossils to get money to support her family.

In 1891, a young Polish woman named Marie Sklodowska traveled to Paris to study physics. She did so because she could not get a college education in Poland.She began working in the laboratory of a man named Pierre Curie. Marie and Pierre Curie got married and made many discoveries together. They received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 along with another scientist.Marie Curie became the first person to be awarded a second Noble Prize in 1911, this time for Chemistry. Marie Curie was one of the few women at the time who became famous as a scientist.

Futurologists(未来学家)predict that life will probably be very different in 2050 in all the fields of activity，from entertainment to technology.First of all，it seems that TV channels will have disappeared by 2050.Instead，people will choose a programme from a “menu”(菜单)and a computer will send the programme directly to the television.Today，we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometres away.By 2050，music，films，programmes，newspapers and books will come to us by computer.We will also be able to see，smell and touch the things that we see on television.

In transport，cars will run on new，clean “gas” and they will go very fast.Cars will have computers to control the speed of the car and there won't be any accidents.Today，many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are.By 2050，the computer will control the car and drive it to where you want to go.Space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just two hours.

In technology，robots will have replaced people in factories.Many factories already use robots.Big companies prefer robots — they do not ask for pay rises or go on strike，and they work 24 hours a day.By 2050，we will see robots everywhere — in factories，schools，offices，hospitals，shops and homes.

Last but not least，medicine technology will have conquered many diseases.By 2050，we will be able to help blind and deaf people see again and hear again.Scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look，how they behave and how much intelligence they have.

If there is one thing I’m sure about, it is that in a hundred years from now we will still be reading newspapers. It is not that newspapers are a necessity. Even now some people get most of their news from television or radio. Many buy a paper only on Saturday or Sunday. But for most people reading a newspaper has become a habit passed down from generation to generation.

The nature of what is news may change. What basically makes news is what affects our lives—the big political stories, the coverage of the wars, earthquakes and other disasters, will continue much the same. I think there will be more coverage of scientific research, though. It’s already happening in areas that may directly affect our lives, like genetic (基因的) engineering. In the future, I think there will be more coverage of scientific explanations of why we feel as we do—as we develop a better understanding of how the brain operates and what our feelings really are.

It’s quite possible that in the next century newspapers will be transmitted electronically from Fleet Street and printed out in our own home. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it will happen in the future. You will probably be able to choose from a menu, making up your own newspaper by picking out the things you want to read   — sports and international news, etc.

I think people have got it wrong when they talk about competition between the different media. They actually feed off each other. Some people once foresaw that television would kill off newspapers, but that hasn’t happened. What is read on the printed page lasts longer than pictures on a screen or sound lost in the air. And as for the Internet, it’s never really pleasant to read something just on a screen.